Closing summary
The opening day of litigation brought by Prince Harry and others against the Mirror Group Newspapers alleging unlawful information gathering such as phone hacking has come to a close.
Here are the main takeaways from the day’s revelatory events:
Piers Morgan was aware of the use of unlawful information gathering (UIG) such as phone hacking and ‘blagging’ when he was editor of the Mirror, the court was told. Morgan has previously denied any knowledge of phone hacking taking place on his watch.
A tranche of documents released to the court contain examples that the claimants say show Morgan “must have known” about illegal behaviour at the Mirror when he was editor between 1995 and 2004.
In one alleged incident, Morgan asked a journalist to name the source of a celebrity story and was told “the information had come from voicemails”.
In another, a witness describes how Morgan was “laughing mockingly” as he entertained the Daily Mirror newsroom by repeatedly playing staff a private voicemail left by Paul McCartney for his then girlfriend, Heather Mills.
In another, a witness claims Morgan knew the default pin codes that could be used to illegally access voicemails on different mobile phone networks.
Prince Harry was subject to “appalling” methods of obtaining information about his private life, the claimants’ barrister David Sherborne said.
Morgan has so far not engaged directly with allegations he knew his journalists were using phone hacking and other illegal methods, instead he tweeted an image from animated satire South Park and told an ITV journalist Prince Harry should be the one apologising for invading the privacy of his own family.
Coronation Street actors Michael Turner, aka Michael Le Vell, and Nikki Sanderson, and the ex-wife of Paul Whitehouse, Fiona Wightman, make up the other three claimants in the case.
Unlawful information gathering was both habitual and widespread across all three of the MGN titles from 1991 to 2011, Sherborne said, adding the group was a flood of illegality.
The Mirror Group Newspapers continued to use private investigators even though they had been previously convicted for illegally obtaining private information, Sherborne says.
Court documents show Chelsy Davy, the former girlfriend of the Duke of Sussex, decided that “a royal life was not for her” as a result of alleged unlawful information gathering.
MGN admitted there is “some evidence” of unlawful information gathering (UIG) that “warrants compensation”. In court documents, the group said it “unreservedly apologises” for instances of unlawful information gathering, which the publisher said “will never be repeated”.
Thanks for following the coverage today.
The hearing has concluded for the day and will resume tomorrow.
